Oat And Date Slices Food

VEGAN DATE SQUARES (DATE CRUMBLE SLICE)

Steps:

• Option 1: Soak the dates in a large bowl, fully submerged in water, until soft (at least 4 hours, but overnight is best). Once soaked, drain away the soaking liquid and puree your dates in a food processor. I like a mostly smooth texture with a few smaller pieces of date throughout, but puree to your desired consistency.
• Option 2: If you don't have a food processor or time to wait for dry dates to soak, you can cook the dates in a small pot. This waters down the flavor of the dates, but you may enjoy a slightly less sweet filling anyway.For this option, add dates to a pot with water. Cook over low heat until the dates are soft and you can mash with a fork (press dates into the side of the pot to mash). This option also creates a more textured filling because the dates won't be pureed.
• To make the crumble, add rolled oats, lightly packed brown sugar and whole wheat flour. Stir until well combined.
• Add vegan butter or margarine to the dry mixture and use a fork or your hand to mix the butter throughout, creating a crumbly mixture.
• Grease a 9x13" baking dish (with extra vegan butter/ margarine or cooking spray).
• Pour about ⅔ of the crumble mixture into the bottom of your baking dish and press down firmly, creating an evenly packed layer.
• Spread the dates evenly over your pressed crumble. It's best to scoop small amounts of date puree all over the base layer to make it easier to spread.
• Sprinkle the remaining crumble mixture over your layer of dates and lightly press down.
• Bake in an oven preheated to 350 °F for 30-35 minutes, until the top is slightly golden brown and the bottom is fully golden brown (if you have a glass baking dish you can look at the bottom).
• Cool completely before you slice into squares or slices and serve at room temperature.
• Store leftovers in an airtight container for up to 3 days on the counter or a week in the fridge. You can also freeze this recipe.

OAT AND DATE SLICES

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 150C and line a baking tin with paper - don't grease it, the flapjack mixture will be greasy enough.
• Simmer dates and 25g of the sugar with 4 tablespoons of water. The dates will become soft and the water will be absorbed. Give the dates a brisk mix with a fork to make them paste-like, if necessary add a little more water and cook for longer. I also added some allspice and cinnamon.
• Mix oats, sugar, sunflower seeds and flour together. (I added a handful of pumpkin seeds and replaced 25g flour with oats.).
• Melt the syrup and butter together then stir into the dry mixture.
• Spread half the flapjack mixture in the tin, then spread all the date paste over it. Spread the remaining half of the flapjack mixture on top. Quite difficult to spread, so dot spoonfuls around and squash them out.
• Bake for 45 minutes and allow to cool slightly before cutting into bars.